EXPLOSION IN A GOAL MINE

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9394, 22 March 1898, Page 2

EXPLOSION IN A GOAL MINE

Fourtoen Miners Imprisoned in the

Dudley Colliery.

(By Electric Telegiaph— Copyright.) (Per United Press Association.) (Received March 21, at 8.30 a.m.) Stdnev, March 21. News ha 3 just been received at Newcastle from Charleston that an explosion occurred at the Dudley colliery. Fourteen men are imprisoned in the mine. So great was tho force of the explosion that all the machinery at the pit's mouth was destroyed. It will he some hours before the collapsed shaft can be sufficiently secured to permit of assistance being sent below. Hundreds of men, women and children flocked to the pit mouth, many piteous scones being witnessed. Those imprisoned are— Young, Cook, Hindmarsh, Humphrey, Haddon (married men), Jones, Rudge, Hetherington, Green, Menson, Dorrity, Price, Durham, Mobray (single men). The Dudley Pit, situated near Red Head on the south coast of Newcastle, although credited with being one of the most gaseous, was also one of the best ventilated in the district. The shaft is 650 ft deep. Fully 300 men are usually employed, but owing to slackness of trade the miners just now are tailing a couple of days' holiday, otherwise a great number of lives would have been lost.